1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium cartridge which accommodates, within a case, a recording tape wound on a reel or a disc-shaped disk medium for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recording medium cartridges which accommodate, within a case, a recording tape wound on a reel or a disc-shaped disk medium for example, are known as external recording media for computers and the like. Such a recording medium cartridge has been thought of which has a so-called WORM function in which the writing of data is allowed one time, writing of data onto storage regions where data is written is prohibited, and thereafter, the recording medium is used as an additional-write or a read-only recording medium (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 2003-123342 and 2000-268443). In the recording tape cartridges disclosed in these publications and having a magnetic tape as the recording medium thereof, a cartridge memory (CM) provided within the cartridge case in used in order to realize the WORM function. For example, the CM stores information for managing the data recorded on the magnetic tape, such as the tape format, the serial number, the error rate, and the like, as well as information for realizing the WORM function, such as the fact that the cartridge is a WORM-type cartridge. Accordingly, a drive into which this recording tape cartridge is loaded can recognize that the recording tape cartridge is a WORM-type cartridge.
However, in conventional recording medium cartridges such as described above, the information for data management and the information for the WORM function are stored in a single memory device, and therefore, these information are stored in the same storage format. Thus, it is difficult to aim for improvement of the security of WORM-type recording media at which, generally, important data is recorded.
Further, in managing a WORM-type recording medium cartridge such as described above, it is convenient to judge the absence/presence of writing of data on the recording medium and the absence/presence of the reading history. However, in a conventional recording tape cartridge, merely due to the information relating to the WORM function being stored in the CM as described above, the user cannot directly obtain the information relating to the WORM function without loading the recording medium cartridge into a drive device or the like. Further, it is preferable to have a drive device recognize the information relating to the WORM without using an expensive CM, and, from the standpoint of ensuring security, to handle to the information relating to the WORM separately from the CM which stores the aforementioned information for data management.